eryl Streep is an American actress who has had an extensive career in film, tele

vision, and stage.[1][2] She made her stage debut in 1975 with The Public Theate
r production of Trelawny of the Wells.[3] She went on to perform several roles o
n stage in the 1970s, garnering a Tony Award nomination for her role in 27 Wagon
s Full of Cotton (1976).[4] In 1977, Streep starred in the television movie The
Deadliest Season, and made her film debut with a brief role alongside Jane Fonda
in Julia.[5] A supporting role in the war drama The Deer Hunter (1978) proved t
o be a breakthrough for Streep and she received her first Academy Award nominati
on for it.[6] She won the award the following year for playing a troubled wife i
n the top-grossing drama Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).[7] Also in 1978, Streep playe
d a German married to a Jew in Nazi Germany in the television miniseries Holocau
st, which earned her the Emmy Award for Best Actress.[8]
Streep established herself as a leading Hollywood actress in the 1980s.[9][10] S
he played dual roles in the period drama The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981),[1
0] and starred as a Polish holocaust survivor in Sophie's Choice (1982).[11] She
was awarded the Best Actress Oscar for the latter.[8] Streep portrayed the real
-life character of Karen Silkwood in Mike Nichols' drama Silkwood (1983),[12] be
fore starring in her most financially successful release of the decade, the roma
ntic drama Out of Africa (1985), in which she played the Danish writer Karen Bli
xen.[13][14] Despite intermittent successes, Streep's career went through a peri
od of decline post-1985, with several commentators criticizing her for her incli
nation towards melodramatic roles.[15] The criticism continued despite her attem
pts to actively star in commercial comedies; her roles that parodied women's bea
uty and aging in the films She-Devil (1989) and Death Becomes Her (1992) were pa
nned.[16]
In 1995, Streep starred opposite Clint Eastwood as an unhappily married woman in
The Bridges of Madison County, her biggest critical and commercial success of t
he decade.[14][17] Although her dramas of the late 1990s received a mixed recept
ion overall,[18][19] she was praised for her role as a cancer patient in One Tru
e Thing (1998).[20] She had acclaimed roles in the 2002 films Adaptation and The
Hours, and won a second Emmy Award for the television miniseries Angels in Amer
ica a year later, though she failed to replicate her earlier success.[21][22] Th
is changed in 2006, with an Academy Award-nominated role as a ruthless fashion m
agazine editor in the comedy-drama The Devil Wears Prada.[23] This late-period s
uccess led to starring roles in several high-profile films, including the US$609
million-grossing romantic comedy Mamma Mia! (2008), her highest-grossing releas
e, and the comedy-drama Julie & Julia (2009), in which she played Julia Child.[2
4][25] These roles re-established Streep's stardom in Hollywood.[26] Her portray
al of Margaret Thatcher in the biopic The Iron Lady (2011) earned her another Ac
ademy Award for Best Actress.[27] The starring role of Florence Foster Jenkins i
n the 2016 comedy-drama film of the same name garnered Streep her 20th Oscar nom
ination, more than any actor or actress in history.[28]